Julius Thomas could miss season opener

Thomas could miss 4-5 weeks with hand surgery

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – When Jaguars tight end Julius Thomas injured his left hand in the preseason opener, the original thinking was that he'd be available for the start of the regular season. During Monday's conference call with General Manager Dave Caldwell we learned that may not be the case.

"We met with the doctors here just recently," said Caldwell.  "I just actually got off the phone. He's getting a second opinion tomorrow. We will know more tomorrow. My understanding if he does need it it's only going to push him back a couple of weeks in terms of his return time so he was going to be fifty-fifty for the opener but we would hope that if it was and everything went well it should be about four weeks from the date of the surgery where he'd be back and full strength." 

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Losing Thomas for any amount of time would be a big blow for a Jaguars offense that has looked good during the preseason. In March the Jaguars signed him to a five-year $46 million contract to be a primary target for second-year quarterback Blake Bortles.

The Jaguars open the 2015 season on Sept. 13 against the Carolina Panthers.